Sunday, February 27, 2005
Pattern: Rebecca 28, #41 Sweater with Diagonal Ribs and Cables
Yarn: Lion's Brand Kool Wool, 12 skeins x 60 yds = 720 yds total
Gauge: 14 sts to 10cm over 2x2 rib, size 10 needles
Hey they're different colors! Actual color most resembles the photo on the left. The photo on the right showcases the main reason why I picked this pattern to knit - those dainty yarn overs in between the ribs, coming together in such a pretty V. How clever to use yarn overs in lieu of a simple increase. I really love that detail. Here's another photo to show the side.
Me 'n my cozy winter sweater with the lovely side detail
lounging on the couch with an [empty] mug of coffee
This sweater was a fast and easy knit if you remove the whole seaming bit. It took me all of yesterday afternoon and most of the night to just seam and oh god I was so miserable. Pulling at my hair, cursing, crying, turning purple. D was all, "Girl I'm confused. I thought knitting was supposed to be relaxing?" I hate hate hate seaming the sleeves on.
None of my reference books had anything useful to say, except: "Pin center of sleeve to shoulder seam, ease into shape, and sew." ...And? AND??! So many pages devoted to how designing and charting sleeves and neckholes and this and that, but nothing on putting it together.
The cap sleeve seaming fiasco. I used white yarn first to see what I was doing. A very ad hoc process.
I started seaming from the top center of the sleeve down to the armhole, and then did it again for the other side. The Vogue Knitting book did mention using backstitch, but I couldn't make sense of how to do that when starting from the center of a piece? Instead I used a version of mattress stitch to attach the top of the sleeve to the shoulder, picking up about 2 shoulder stitches to 1 sleeve stitch. It seemed to work out ok mathematically, but the end result is sloppy. I look like I'm wearing shoulder pads. The bulkiness of the yarn could be to blame for that. D thinks it looks fine and maybe it does, but my eyes can't help but zero in on the awkward shoulder seaming.
Someone needs to show me how to do this properly. Otherwise from now on I'm sticking with raglan sleeves. So send any tips my way!
Also still having issues with neckshaping. There's a small hole boo boo in the back. If you don't look really hard you won't see it. But I know it's there and that's all that matters. Strangely enough even though the knowledge of the hole's existence will haunt me at night, I never considered stopping to rip out rows in order to fix it. Laziness always wins in the end.
The verdict is still out on the Kool Wool. It's a really heavy drape, and it looks like it's starting to pill already. On the other hand it's super soft and cozy. And cheap! Relatively speaking. I would definitely knit this sweater again.
And can I just say what a pleasure it is to follow a graphical pattern than it is to follow pure text of endless "row1: k1, p3, *[yo, k1, p3] repeat from * 14 times, k1, p3 blah blah blah"? American and English pattern books need to step it up and draw me a picture.
Another sweater, with cables, with turtleneck, in neutral.
This one's going to be HOT.
Next up in the queue - that other chunky cable sweater from Rebecca 28. From this point on I'm calling it Savanna, rather than "Sweater with Cables." I've already started it, using DB chunky merino, in yet another neutral color. I love her yarns - they all have this certain sheen, even for wool.
I've already made a mistake with this one though. Not enough yarn. After knitting up that first skein and seeing how little it produced, I knew my stash was not going to be enough. My mistake: calculating the amount of yarn I needed using weight instead of yardage. I was substituting GGH Savanna with the DB, both are 50grams, but GGH has more yardage. Thus I am short 3 skeins. However I have a workaround that does not involve buying more, so fingers, paws, eyes crossed.
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Rebecca 28 | Savanna | SWDR